Wednesday

"Beautiful Things" by Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
You are making me new

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us (x3)


We sang this song in chapel this morning. What a simple song, but man--what a powerful truth. Broken as we are, there are times when whatever beauty we have within us seems totally eclipsed, marred by our failings. Still, we are children of God, created in His image. When God created us, He looked on His handiwork and proclaimed it "good". We lose sight of this potential so easily. I think it is because we can't regain true beauty or goodness on our own. We try and we try, but every time we come up short serves to remind us of our weakness and inadequacy.

Thankfully it doesn't end there. Like the gardener who tends to a plot of dusty brown earth, plowing it and fertilizing it, God is renewing us. He is creating within us fertile soil out of which a beautiful garden may grow. We can't do anything to make ourselves beautiful and new--not anymore than a garden can plow itself. When we let the gardener work in us and through us, however, we are refreshed and restored. I'm so grateful to serve a Lord who recognizes the beauty and goodness in me even when I'm overgrown in brambles, and I eagerly await the day when this restoration, this ultimate feat of gardening, will be made complete.